Tag Archives: forest

Walking in our beautiful Lathrop forests gives us a sense of peace and timelessness. Yet great stresses lie ahead for New England forests: buildings and roads; invasive plants, insects, and diseases; heavy deer browse; and climate change. In a 2016 booklet, “Increasing Forest Resiliency for an Uncertain Future,” the authors, from U Mass, U Vermont, and the USDA, identify these stresses and help landowners increase their forests’ “resiliency,” which the authors define as “The capacity of a forest to respond to a disturbance by resisting damage or stress and recovering quickly.” Resilient forests have a diversity of tree and plant species, adaptable plants, a mix of old and young trees, ample deadwood, a variety of tree arrangements from dense to sparse, and ample regeneration of species, especially those adapted to future climate conditions (www.masswoods.net).

by Barbara Walvoord
(First published in Lathrop Lamp Post December 8, 2016)

My granddaughter Lauren Warner enjoyed our north campus forest one day last winter. But our forests are not just wonderful places to walk and play. They help fight global climate change by storing carbon.

Our Lathrop forest is part of the so-called “midlatitude forests” stretching from the Carolinas up into New England, Canada, and the Midwest.The past few years of carbon monitoring at the Harvard Forest have shown that these forests are reducing the global increase in carbon by more than 10 percent.Continue reading Lathrop Forests Fight Global Climate Change→